Prosper.com Reviews – Is There a Prosper.com Scam?

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Have you heard of the peer to peer lending program offered by Prosper.com? There are several Prosper.com reviews on the web, but this one cuts to the core and answers the question about whether there is a Prosper.com scam. Don’t miss this essential breakdown of a investment program that continues to grow in popularity on the web.

Prosper.com Reviews – What Is This Company About?

As stated above, Prosper.com is a lending website for people to borrow money from other people. Depending on the credit-worthiness of the borrower, the project they need money for, and the willingness of the investor to put money, is what shapes the basics in each agreement. A borrower with good credit and history will receive a higher rating than someone with delinquencies or other credit issues. That also influences the rate offered to investors.

Typically the rates are higher in this system than if you went to a bank or other standardized institution. However, many people cannot qualify for loans from a bank for varying reasons. The loans at Prosper.com are not secured and higher risk.

Prosper.com Reviews – Complaints About the Prosper.com Scam

Prosper has their own system for assigning grades to borrowers. The lower the grade, the higher the rate and the higher the risk. A few years ago, when the economy was first starting to fall into the sinkhole of doom, many of the borrowers at Prosper.com became delinquent and ultimately went into bankruptcy. Even many of the A rated borrowers failed. In fact, roughly 20% of the borrowers went into default. This took a terrible toll on Prosper’s reputation.

To compound the trouble, the SEC investigated Prosper.com for their investment practices and offerings. The SEC served them a cease and desist letter during the investigation. In 2009, Prosper was able to meet the requirements of the SEC and continued operating until the present day. The good news is that Prosper and many of the borrowers and investors learned some valuable lessons. Prosper has reformed their rules and regulations to better protect themselves and their investors. So, in order to be fair, there’s no Prosper.com scam. These are legitimate investment opportunities. Today, just over 1% of the loans go into default on average.

Prosper.com Reviews – Affiliate Opportunities

Aside from making money buy loaning with Prosper, you can also make money through their Affiliate opportunity. Since there are many people borrowing and loaning, you can help bring these parties together and get paid for doing it. The 3 sources that partner with Prosper for affiliate commissions are shareasale.com, adworkz.com, and commissionjunction.com (cj.com). We like Commission Junction and use them for various affiliate opportunities. You can generate up to $100 per borrower and $50 per lender sent to Prosper. Here’s the link if you need cash:

If you wish to invest, follow this link:

Prosper.com Reviews – Summary Prosper.com Scam

Due to the hard lessons learned by Prosper, this seems to be a decent opportunity for both borrowers and investors today. One can invest as little as $50 per loan, which helps keep risk down. Rates are not as high as in the past because of the tightening up of policies. However, as long as you realize the risk of an unsecured loan, you can make more money than buying a CD from a bank or a money market. The good news is that Prosper is very careful to avoid the fraudulent borrowers. If you want to participate in the affiliate opportunity as well, you can make money on the side.

Do you have any additional knowledge or experience with Prosper? Please add to these Prosper.com reviews or the Prosper.com scam reports below.

Written by Kevin & Suzanne Rhodes

Founder and Owner, Kevin Rhodes, is a long time professional in business. Kevin was a top performing Financial Advisor, an Operations Manager for a global fortune 500 financial services company, and also was President of a small startup business. Kevin’s goal with this website is to guide people who are anxiously seeking home business opportunities toward viable programs and systems for potential success. He strongly believes anyone who has dogged determination will succeed in partnership with excellent business opportunities. If we can be of any support, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Wishing you prosperity!

21 Comment responses

Ditto all of the above. Save yourself the time and frustration!!! Also sorry we furnished all the personal info they asked for….then sent an email (do not reply!) telling us they could not verify the income. This after numerous requests and assurances that we had an acct. established and were funded!!

I applied for a loan with prosper. After my loan was funded, they requested documents which I provided to them right away. I kept checking my loan status, it was the same every time, “verification process”. I called the customer service few times. Every time I called they would tell me different things. One said, no worries,it will be finalized soon, keep checking the status, another said, we have all the info, it will be funded soon. After few phone calls, someone said that they tried to call me to verify the information but the phone was busy. Really? Every time I called, I requested to speak to a verification agent. Every time they would take my phone number and information and would tell me she would call you back. No phone calls what so ever. Next thing I know my loan is cancelled because they could not contact me. What? Overall, very poor customer service. They don’t care to call you back no matter how many times you call them. I regret giving my personal information to them. Waste of my time, really.

This company should be rated #1 in worst customer service. They really sound good at first then you will be requested to keep resending all your documentation to them at least 5 times. Then they will canx your approval. Tried to call and left messages but no response. Terrible company.

Prosper is a SCAM. I applied becuase I received one of those Pre-Approved fake checks saying I qualify up to 35,000. I gave them everything they asked for. My credit score was 711. They approved and then three days later, I receive an email saying I am not approved. Huh?? I was very upset and called them to find out what happened. The guy said that my credit score did not meet their criteria. I said what is your criteria. He said no lower then 640. I said that I have 711 and your company is the one that provided this info. Are you saying if dropped in three days?? He said “he has not idea”. I asked him what my credit score is showing now and he said he could not tell me so I hung up and got on line to check my credit scoree again with the three agencies. Well, I got an average of 720 this time! It went up! I called back and told the new customer service person that I got on the line. She said he has not idea what happened and that my credit score must be below 640 and that is it. I said that I would email her the credit info I just got but she said that would not help. My loan was denied. By the way, that was two weeks ago and guess what just came in the mail?? Another phoney pre-approved offer from Prosper. They are a joke! I plan to report them to the BBB.

I feel obligated to write a review after my recent experience with Prosper. I’m always one to lean on the experience of others to help make my decision, so after doing receiving a mail offer and doing some homework, I deceided to apply. I have to say the process was pretty smooth. To give you a little background, I’m newly employed (appx 4 mos), filed bankruptcy about 5 years ago and my FICO is about 640, so it is difficult to get traditional financing or the prime rates that I was once used to. I applied to Prosper on Mon and it is Wed night when I checked my profile to find that my approval for $10k @ 16% over 3 yrs (debt consolidation) has been approved and I should see the transfer within 2-4 days. ***Note*** There is unfortunately an origination fee that (in my case) calculated to roughly 5% of the requested loan amount (yours may vary). They take that portion right from your funds so you should definately consider this in your funds request. Had I known how much it would be, I would have requested a little more to compensate for the difference (I didn’t think it would be that much, but they do state there will be a fee) Hopefully this helps someone else. ***End Note*** Ultimatly (in my case) this is a relatively expensive loan, and under normal circumstances I would opt for an alternative. However, given my scenario and restraints, its an opportunity to leverage financing that would otherwise not be available at all (and that is still at least “reasonable”).

During the process I was only asked for my most recent paystub and a voided check (or recent bank statement) to verify my account. I have been working for my current employer for only 4 months and because of that I was asked in follow-up for my last stub from previous employer for them to get a better idea of my calculated income. I’m led to believe that with me having a bankruptcy, new employment, and just an “ok” FICO… to be asked for so little; I think that the people having issues may have more going on than they are sharing and are misleading in telling people that the company is hard to deal with.

Admittedly, my DTI (debt to income) is low and I don’t have any late or outstanding bills, but if these things are present in “your” scenario, more may be asked of you (and understandably so).

For those that care, I was communicated with via email and I sent requested docs in immediately (as they state this will have a lot to do with how quickly you are processed and get a decision). I never had any questions, so I can’t speak to how well they respond. All-in-all, my process was seamless.

Again, I’m writing this because I almost didn’t apply based on some of the things I read here. However, I’ve learned through experience that everyone sees things a little different, so you must be careful in using an “opinion” or someone else’s “judgment” to make decisions for yourself. People aren’t always fair honest when things don’t go their way (no offense intended).

dale, first, if you receive utility bills electronically, you can still view AND print them and it look JUST Like the one you receive in the mail. Maybe you know this, maybe you don’t, but I am here just doing research on lending opportunities and have ZERO affiliation. Second, do YOU have any affiliation with the “Club” you mention? My guess is that you do….maybe I’m wrong…maybe I’m not. Good luck to everyone seeking funding!

I agree with dale. They want a ton of info. Cannot get anyone to reply when you have questions. prosper should look into fixing their customer service. Pretty sure your patience will be tested if you try to apply for a loan. Good luck if you do.

As a borrower, there has to be a BETTER way to borrow money than Prosper. Their entire operation is so investor-center, that the borrowers are treated like cattle. Once you put up a loan for funding, you are met with a string off “do not reply” emails demanding documentation repeatedly, even if you have already sent it. When you do find an email to respond to, and ask why the documentation is not accepted, you are met with silence. If you call their phone number, you are directed as a borrower to a recording that tells you that you must wait for at least 7 days to have it processed. Then it HANGS UP ON YOU. You give your SS#, your banking account number, all of your sensitive information, and they cannot answer a phone. Scary stuff. I imagine that this company is nothing more than a few upper level people, some techs, and some cheap workers in India. Find another company. They’re absolute disrespect of their borrowers is going to come back to ruin the company. You can’t treat them like cattle without the investors starting to wonder. We had a listing up, and it was actually 18% higher interest than what was teased to us. It was funded by investors within hours. Then we went through all the hoops with ZERO interaction with anyone at Prosper… only to find 2 weeks later that they cancelled the loan funding because we forgot to give an employer phone number. Now the employer NAME and PHONE number is on the paystub we submitted 5 times, and the name was on the application. This is why I think that they have their employees doing the paperwork in India… why else could wouldn’t a rep just look it up OR hey, CALL us and ask? I absolutely despise that company. And I see that others feel the same.

I’ve tried lending on both lendingtree and prosper and have invested across a ton of loans in both. Despite the coupons of 6 to 27%, i’ve nonetheless received a return of around 3 to 4% on both. I’m convinced these sites are scams and lying about their numbers. Once you make the loan you are also locked into a horribly illiquid investment (any public REIT would certainly be a better return and liquid).

i’ve had NUMEROUS loans on both sites never make even ONE payment. clearly it was someone stealing and neither will refund you if that happens — they should take responsibility when this happens. it’s on them and not on the lender.

in short to lenders: STAY AWAY — this is not an effective cash management tool.

I just tried to get a simple loan .. about 7k to consolidate.
Filled the app out and one thing .. a password kept comming back that I needed to re-do.. did that 5 times w/ other didgets and numbesrs and kept being denid. Coustomer support that I called asked me if I had another computer thaqt I could use to apply because my browser was not compatible with thiers. I said yep.. I will put my comp in the trash in the morning and buy a new one and hope it shall work w/ yous browser.. she said O.K.
So sad ,,,, this company has a nice flyer that they send you in the mail but,,,.

prosper is all fun and games until one of the loans that you’ve funded defaults. prosper gives you no information about their internal procedures regarding collections or any information as to their communication. they won’t even give you a simple yes or no answer when you ask them if they have been able to contact a borrower who has defaulted. also, do some reading about the complaint that the SEC filed against prosper in 2009.

I’ve been an Investor with Prosper since 2007 and have been pleased with the results so far. From 2007-2008 I averaged 7.04% return. Not bad when the stock market started to plunge 20%. 2009-2011 I’m was averaging 12.57% and in 2012 I’m averaging 16.12%. I’m shooting for a 20% return.
I’m considered a large investor investing over 100K on 374 micro loans so far. 33 of those loans were defaulted on. Majority of the defaults came in 207-2009 time frame.
You have to remember you have to treat this like a business you cannot go blindly into this and expect everyone to pay you back at 30%. If you do decide to try Prosper.com please please do so in a very small amount of cash and learn from your mistakes.

We are retired and desired a loan. Making a little over 6K/month to consolidate our debts/credit cards easily…..we sent tax info and bank statements. They asked us 4 times for pay stubs….which naturally we do not have. We also got one email to ignore the request for pay stubs and then got 2 more requests for pay stubs……a lot of STUPID people work there. We got an email tonight saying if we don’t give pay stubs in 48 hrs. we will be declined. I am surprised they are still in business. Thanks for listening since you are an investor.

Prosper canceled my loan after several weeks because I played phone tag with a representative. He called me on my mobile while I was at work. He left me a message and as soon as I could I called him back and got his voicemail. I left him a message. This happened 2 times. He tried calling me a third time, again – while I was at work, did not leave me a message and minutes later my listing was canceled.

My loan was fully funded. I was a AA borrower and I provided them with every bit of documentation they asked for in a timely manner. They had all of my personal information – all of my financial information. BUT, because the representative whose job it was to contact me on the phone failed to do so, my loan was thrown in the trash. I was NEVER told that if I didn’t talk to the Prosper representative on the phone in a certain amount of days that all of my hard work was going to be wasted.

In summary, this was a VERY disappointing experience with a company that does not care about people.

You do not mention in your review anything about weather Prosper is a good business opportunity from an affiliate standpoint. I recently signed up for their affiliate program through Commission Junction. I’ve only been in a few days and was looking for reviews of their affiliate program, and since your website is ehomebusinessreviews.com. I thought it would review the Business opportunity, not the product.

Dale, if they didn’t tell you in advance that you needed a utility bill, then shame on them. If they did, and you were just hoping that your other credentials would offset that requirement, then you’re the clown. Sure, there are people with high FICA scores that don’t pay for any of electricity, gas, water, land-line-phone, or cable… but they are in the minority and, as a creditor, I think the general rule to require that level of added due diligence is prudent.

Don’t waste your time with these donkeys ! I have a FICO score in the mid 700′s, sent them my bank account info, recent pay stubs, mulitiple id’s, rental agreement, and sent the code requested on the home address verification post card to prove who I am and where I live, yet it was not good enough for these clueless clowns.
I don’t receive a utility bill, explained this to them in writing and phone calls, and was under the impression things were going alright as members funded my request within a week. I was informed that my account was funded, but yet my request was pending for another week. They let my account linger for another week, before they decided to cancel my loan request because I could not provide them a utility bill….Really ?? After they wasted my time identifying me and where I live by other means, yet none of those were good enough. They violated my personal life and knew everything about me except my cable bill, and because of that, they decided to cancel my request. This company deserves to go bankrupt with their business model. Go to LendingClub, I had no problems getting a larger loan request funded, as these clowns with Prosper wasted my time !

Thanks for your valuable information regarind the lending process with Prosper. I have received mutliple offers to apply for a loan. I have been very leary about responding because I thought it was a scam. You can’t be too careful these days with identity theft on the rise. I have also received loan offers from Lending Group, Avant Credit and of course Prosper. I am not sure which one I should consider. I am leaning more against doing business with Prosper based on the previous reviews. I don’t want to jump through all the hoops, sending in the paperwork, then told because I did not provide a bank statement, utility bill, etc then be denied. I can go to a bank to be denied. As a previous email stated. I will think about my choices and make a decision. I want to make the right choice and not regret it. Thanks for for comments.